Supercross has not come easy for Honda HRC’s Hunter Lawrence. The elder Lawrence brother was forced to the sidelines in 2019 and 2020 due to injuries, making this year's third round in Arlington, Texas, on Saturday night, just his fifth career start. We're starting to see big signs of progress from Hunter indoors, as the Australian claimed his first career heat race victory a week ago in Daytona and followed it up last night with a career-best second-place finish in the main event.

Lawrence spoke with the media following the race via Zoom.

Racer X: You just recently told me in an interview that you were at your lowest in your career last year at the beginning of the nationals, facing another injury, almost giving up. What does it mean to persevere and get to this point and not only basically make it, but you got your first supercross podium?
Hunter Lawrence: Yeah, it’s awesome. It’s pretty cool to prove yourself right and just keep believing, keep believing. You believe in yourself for so long, and no one believes in you more than yourself. So, you keep telling yourself you can do it, you can do it, but when you’re not doing it, it’s tough. It mentally just chips you down and down. To push through that time last year when obviously Jett was doing really well and I was just struggling with my body and the injuries and stuff, it was like it was never ending. It took a big toll on me. We just dug deep and pushed through it. Even two months ago I wasn’t even doing the full supercross track, just due to coming back from that shoulder surgery after the outdoors. So, the progression rate is pretty steep at the moment. Every time I get on the bike, I just feel better, feel more comfortable, feel fitter, stronger, more confident, more sure of everything. It’s cool.

What has been the key to your success? What was something that was able to get you over the hump and actually start making sense of this?
I think the biggest thing was figuring out my body and getting that to work properly. My body was just so fueled with inflammatories and created autoimmune disease and basically, I’m almost a type two diabetic and stuff. That alone was a huge thing on just not being able to train. I’d do something and the next day I would just be like, I can barely move. So that was a huge thing alone. Then just being healthy. Every time I would feel good on the bike, I’m on it and getting better and stuff. That side of things is huge. Obviously, there’s little bits and pieces, but that was the biggest thing is just being healthy.